There's No Emotion in Their Eyes
by CannibalisticDesires
Summary: Xayden McCollins; not your ordinary girl but she will have to do for our easy to love redneck hick Daryl Dixon. Is it safe to say, though, that even this country, born in the marsh girl is shocking Mr. King of the Woods in this time where the dead walk the Earth. What will come between these two hot heads? Read and find out.(Disclaimers inside; Warnings of OCness and plot change)
1. Chapter 1

**There's No Emotion in Their Eyes.**

_**Disclaimer:**_

**I do not own The Walking Dead or the familiar characters in the show. Those rights belong to AMC as well as the authors of the graphic novel series. I do not make any profit writing this story; it is all for entertainment and hobby-related fun (and a bit of fangirl-ism).**

**The only thing I own is Xayden, my made-up character.**

**This story will be taking place during Season 2 and leak into Season 3 in later chapters.**

**Please R&R, it will let me know where to steer in with this story and it will also motivate me to write more if people say they enjoy reading it!**

**If there is a little bit of OC-ness in some characters, or plots are changed, I am warning you all now that they are planned as I will be following the storyline, but I don't want to copy it word for word and have my own views on how some things should have gone down.**

**Pairings: Daryl Dixon/Xayden McCollins(OC)**

**Author: Twiggz/Xayden/Shawnie/CannibalisticDesires(all the same person)**

**Chapter: 1**

**Civilian**

_I am nothing without… Pretend I know my faults, can't live with them. _

_I am nothing without… A man. I know my thoughts, but I can't hide them._

My body felt worn down and ached everywhere as I kept moving on down the stretch of highway that was littered with abandoned cars and dead people; as well as dead walkers. My mind stayed on alert despite my body being tired, and it was the thing that kept me moving even though my whole vascular system wanted to shut down on me. I hadn't eaten anything in almost a week and I was running out of water, so I had to ration it to basically four sips a day despite this heat. My vision, though, was still as sharp as ever and I kept my green/grey eyes straight ahead of me; not looking back unless I heard a noise. I kept my head clear of any thoughts other than the alertness of my own senses, keeping my pain and anguish out of mind as I was making sure the path was safe for when my group and I decided to tailgate it out of the woods we were hiding in and move on for safer grounds. Inspecting the area for three days though wasn't really my whole plan, but if all the things that had happened hadn't happened, I would have had to stay here for so long.

On my first day out I noticed a group of people coming along here with a RV and thought that they were in some trouble when I witnessed a herd of walkers come towards them. Unbeknownst to them, I had killed a majority of the walkers going their way before they reached the group; who had chosen to hide under cars and in the RV (which I had to give them credit on how smart that was). Then I witnessed something that happened to my group a few weeks ago. The little girl was spotted as she was trying to look out to see if the herd was gone and she then ran off into the woods with two walkers after her. A police officer guy went after her, but as I waited for him to return, he had returned empty handed. I stayed off in the distance as I didn't know or trust these people; hell, I barely trusted my own group; so I knew I was of no help to them as I hadn't seen which way the girl had gone. A group of men walked off into the woods with weapons and straight forward attitudes and it was at that time that I left.

I knew they hadn't found the girl, so I had been sticking around hoping that the same thing that happened to my group's boy hadn't happened to this group's little girl. My hopes weren't high though due to the fact that I had been on this highway for three days; witnessing their message to the girl and not daring to touch the food that was meant for her; and still nothing came from her and if she was out in those woods, she would have made it back to the highway by now. Sighing to myself and hanging my head, I walked back to the high part of the forest and disappeared into the dense trees.

Walking a few miles in; and half a days' walk; I reached my group's campsite, where I was happily greeted and told to sit down. I didn't say anything as I sat down, setting my harpoon and my crossbow next to me while I reached up and let my unruly bun of hair out, slight waves of long (almost past my ass), flowing and slightly wavy dark-purple hair fell down along my slightly burnt skin as I reached out for a new bottle of water that was waiting for me, almost downing the two liter in one sitting. Iris almost laughed at me and I glared daggers at her.

"Wanna tell me what's so funny!?" I nearly yelled, my brow furrowed in frustration, making the brunette snicker more as she crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side. She was pissing me off and she knew it. If there was one thing I hated more than walkers, it was ignorance to the fact that people think they're funny while hiding something when in reality they are just plain annoying and all I would like to do to them would be the same thing I love to do to walkers: put an arrow through their skull and call it a day. Huffing my annoyance, I looked away and back to an elderly woman who was dressed in a Hawaiian dress with a jean jacket over it with a sun hat on, looking out through a pair of binoculars after shooting a quick, knowing smile in my direction. Janice was her name, and she had turned into a mother figure to me; though I wouldn't admit that to her. Sighing softly, I got up and walked over to a deer that I had hanging over a huge hole in the ground that it was dripping into. Standing up in a ready stance in front of the deer, I grabbed my knife and cut along the fur and skin line so I could quickly skin it. Grabbing the extra flabs that my cuts had created, I yanked down on the fur and quickly skinned the thing, revealing the meat and a bit more blood. I threw the fur over onto a log as I was going to clean it and make something out of it later. I then walked back up to the deer and quickly cut through the meat and muscles before cracking open the ribs and gutting the deer and dropping the guts into the hole below the deer.

"Is that what we are having for dinner?" A little girl; Coraline, or Coral for short; came up and asked me, finally speaking as she hadn't spoken since the boy we had in our group had been shot in the head. Clearing my throat and looking over to her, I thought for a minute before nodding and wondering if she wanted to learn how to prepare the meat. Motioning for her to come over, which she did with a small smile on her face, I pointed to the still draining deer.

"I'm gonna show ya how to prepare the rest of the meat. Now usually, I would save the organs as gizzards from any animal are good, but I don' think that the rest of the group would like such a thing; so I'm being considerate. Now I want to get this meat tenderized, but I don' want any bones breaking into the meat as getting bone pieces out is a bitch. So what we're gonna do is cut off the head like this." I swung a machete into the air and knocked off the deer's head, not watching as it fell into the hole though Coral was transfixed on the object before she looked back up at me. "Then we're gonna take off huge chunks of meat and wash it and then pound at it a bit to get it tender." With these words, I quickly got out my hunting knife and started cutting off big hunks of meat and showing her how to try and make them all the same size. When I was done with that, I motioned over to a pot that I had prepared recently of boiled water that, by now, had cooled down and we both cleaned off the meat before setting it down on a rock that I always used to tenderize meat. Grabbing another rock from its place in a bag, I showed her how to hammer it against the Venison without completely flattening it and ruining it. After that, I let Coral have at it as she seemed to be having fun. Going into the hole and grabbing the organs and the deer head, I took the nearly naked carcass off the hooks and threw them into the fire we had going for the few walkers the group had killed earlier that day.

It was then that I heard it; the awful groaning and gnawing of teeth against teeth and then a scream that made the birds fly out into the sky. Looking around with alert eyes that hid the fear my heart was feeling, I grabbed my harpoon which was hanging along my side as my crossbow was at the camp. The first walker soon came stumbling out of a thicket of bushes and I shot it in the head, quickly going to get my harpoon arrow back before three more walkers came out of a thicket across the way. Knowing that there were possibly more behind this trio, I quickly ran back to camp and yelled for everyone to get packing, and to do it quickly. Grabbing Coral and pushing her to her father, I grabbed the meat and threw it into a cooler before putting the cooler back on the truck we had. Everyone was pretty fast with packing up, and walkers were starting to surround us. I hopped on my Harley and yelled for everyone to hurry up before I put it upon myself to shoot them in the head. Soon, everyone was in their cars or in the truck and I started up my bike just as a walker tried to grab me. Revving past them, I grabbed my crossbow on my way out of the clearing and back onto the trail that led to the highway; or so I thought.

I was confused as I led the group down the road, not fully understanding why we hadn't come into view with the highway as we had been driving more than the miles I knew were between our camp and the highway. Despite this, though, I kept driving, knowing that turning back would just waste gas and I had yet to turn all the cars into biodegradable engines. Pursing my lips together in slight anger with myself, I was inwardly cursing for getting us lost and it was getting darker by the minute and we were being loud as hell driving along in a row. I kept my eyes peeled as we drove, trying to find the slightest bit of movement as I didn't want us stopping unless it was for good. I never liked traveling at night since the outbreak; not after what happened to my sister. Letting the wind go through my hair; which in my rush I forgot to put back up, I soon saw lights up ahead and got curious. There was a clearing near the lights and there was nothing around this clearing. I stopped my bike and parked it, getting off and grabbing my crossbow before nearly leaving to scout out the perimeter. Everyone was quickly parking as well and jumping out of whatever car they had gotten into. Soon I was faced with Janice, Iris, Coraline, Derrik; Coraline's father; and Mahlikx, who were all giving me a look that silently spoke how close that was to all of us being dead. We had others, but when we went through Atlanta, the walkers got them, our recent one being when we got on that death trap of a highway. Looking around, I looked to Iris before motioning for her to follow me and we both searched the perimeter. When we found no walkers, we went back to the group.

"Alright everyone… We're staying here tonight and I think Xayden wants to check out those lights tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a bit safer, or even someone we may know as Xayden is from these parts, but we will find out tomorrow. No need coming in at this time of night and scaring anyone who is there." Iris informed everyone before looking to me. I had a look of annoyance on my face and I really just wanted to punch the shit out of her right then and there.

"You do know I haven' been here since I was ten, right?" I spat out at her, huffing before walking to the truck to get the cooler out of the bed so I could start cooking the Venison which Coral had tenderized pretty well from what I saw when I grabbed it. Grabbing the skillet and a bag out of the cooler, I started cooking the slabs of meat with some vegetables over the fire that Derrik had just set up, sniffing as the slight chill in the air was starting to bug my nose. With a huff, I tried to finish the food quickly so the group could eat as I had a slab for everyone. With the mixed vegetables we were able to grow and freeze, it brought nice flavor to the meat and I was satisfied with the quick meal I was able to prepare for all of us.

When others were handed their food, I worked on my own food and then quickly ate it near my bike away from the others as I watched the perimeter to make sure any noise I could decipher as an animal or walker. Before a while, everyone was quietly happy talking and sharing smiles and soft laughter and I just stayed where I was until Janice came up to me and leaned against the tree my bike was parked near as she picked at her teeth with a dull knife. Sighing and figuring she wanted to talk, I just kept myself busy by making harpoon arrows and crossbow arrows out of the extra twigs we had gathered that were in the bed of the truck. She chuckled and that is what made me look back up at her again.

"You're always doing something to keep you from talking, but I know you have some thoughts running through that skull of yours. I also bet those thoughts are what will keep us all alive if you were just willing enough to share it with the rest of the group." Janice muttered as she looked me over, pausing picking out her teeth with a soft sigh escaping her pale rose lips and I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her words.

"Why would ya'll wanna hear what I gotta say, no matter? I don' see no difference either way." I shrugged and went back to sharpening twigs, giving a barbed design to some of them for my harpoon arrows as they had to be a bit thicker so they wouldn't move around in the barrel. Sighing harshly, I cleared my throat as I continued to smooth out the wood, trying not to make it appear like a flimsy piece of nature and more like a harsh weapon that it was meant to be when put in my hands, and sooner or later my weapon. As night continued to pass, our group slowly started falling asleep and was soon all out except for me and Janice, who was sitting on the top of the roof to the truck to keep watch like she usually did.

Night passed by quickly and I had to huff as I hadn't slept all night and I finally finished working on my arrows, putting them in an arrow slouch and securing it to my bike. Everyone was waking up and eating the leftovers from last night that they didn't finish while I got my bike ready. I soon got to thinking about the fur that I left on the log and how it was probably mingled and gnawed on. I was so bummed thinking on what I was supposed to make with that fur; or more what I wanted to make out of that fur; and it was all ruined now and who knew when I was going to get another deer. Growling in annoyance, I sat on my bike and started the engine, my lip twitching in slight anger as I knew where I needed to go. Iris was looking at me over her food and I flipped her off before taking off and heading to the farm where I saw all those lights the night before.

It was a quick drive, and I had to admit I was rightfully thankful for that and I headed up the dirt trail to the gate, which I opened, drove in through and closed again before I drove up along the road more and up to the door right when people were coming out of tents and the front door. I had my crossbow ready just in case, but happily none of them appeared to be walkers. I kept the crossbow on me and I huffed when I saw some people holding guns to me, holding my hands up and rolling my eyes.

"I ain't fucking bit, and I ain't a threat if you people get those fucking shooters away from me within a few seconds. I get to three, or even hafta count, I'll shoot ya'll." I growled out, cracking my neck as I moved it from side to side in an annoyed matter. Cracking my fingers next, I watched as people started putting their weapons down and seeing what I had to say before an elderly man came out of the farm and looked to me.

"Xayden? Is that Xayden McCollins is that you? I haven't seen you since you weren't a little girl. Can't forget those eyes though. They still amethyst? They look it from here." At hearing this old man speak, I took the finger off the trigger of my crossbow, chuckling softly at hearing the old man speak more and more before shaking my head.

"Mr. Greene? I can' believe you're still on this farm, old man. Who ya have with ya, I see a lot of tents out here." I muttered as I looked around wearily at everyone watching me despite their weapons being down, their eyes were still alert and watching me despite me being known by the owner of these lands. Clearing my throat, I gave a half-assed wave to Maggie, thinking softly on how she had grown since I last saw her; though she was 3 last time I saw her.

"Well, they were some people that needed help. Let's not talk about that, though, have you been travelling by yourself?" Hershal asked me and I shook my head.

"Nah, I got a small group of my own that I found on my travels right down the dirt road. We took camp when we saw your lights on last night. We're not even half a miles away and right at that dirt road that is right next to your fence. I was told to come up as they thought it might be infested. I'm glad to see it ain't." I muttered and looked up to Hershal who just smiled at me and motioned playfully for me to 'get'.

"Well go get them and come back. Knowing you, we'll all have food tonight." I had to laugh at the old man's words and I just headed out and to go get the others from my camp, nodding my head with a soft smile to the new comers that we would all have to meet and greet later on when I brought my group back.


	2. Chapter 2

**There's No Emotion in Their Eyes.**

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I do not own The Walking Dead or the familiar characters in the show. Those rights belong to AMC as well as the authors of the graphic novel series. I do not make any profit writing this story; it is all for entertainment and hobby-related fun (and a bit of fangirl-ism).**_

_**The only thing I own is Xayden, my made-up character and her group.**_

_**This story will be taking place during Season 2 and leak into Season 3 in later chapters.**_

_**Please R&R, it will let me know where to steer in with this story and it will also motivate me to write more if people say they enjoy reading it!**_

_**If there is a little bit of OC-ness in some characters, or plots are changed, I am warning you all now that they are planned as I will be following the storyline, but I don't want to copy it word for word and have my own views on how some things should have gone down.**_

_**Pairings: Daryl Dixon/Xayden McCollins(OC)**_

_**Author: CannibalisticDesires**_

_**Chapter 2**_

_**Of Another Place in Time, Where my Family's From**_

_Dying, everyone's reminding_

_Hearts are washed in misery, drenched in gasoline_

I huffed as I had mounted my bike and gotten back to camp. Thinking to myself, I looked to everyone around me.

"Hershal Greene is up in that farm. He's opened it to us and at the moment, I think it's best. We need ta get going, though. E'rething packed?" I muttered as I stayed on my bike waiting for everyone to get into gear and say they were ready. Iris nodded to me as she got into the truck with Derrik and Coraline while Mahlikx and Janice were in the other car. Huffing, I started my bike, looking around quickly to make sure nothing was being left behind before I took off and led everyone to Hershal's farm.

When we got there, it seemed a bit more crowded, but I believed it was because everyone was fully awake and out of those tents now. Huffing, I got off my bike after parking it near the porch and went up the steps to sit down on the swing next to Patricia.

"What's the matter, Trica?" I asked softly, looking to her as she seemed to be out of it. She looked to me and sighed before looking back down to her hands that were folded in her lap. Her lip quivered and you could tell she wanted to say something but just couldn't find the words, so she just motioned over to an area where I saw a makeshift grave.

"Otis…." She muttered before tears fell down. "He ain't actually in that hole, but we…. We buried some of his things to give him some peace." She cleared her throat before looking over to the people I brought with me. "It's great to see you again, even if you have some new people with ya. In these times, though, even that is a blessing." Patricia looked to me and smiled sadly before reaching out and touching my hand that was against my leg before she stood up and went into the house. I sighed and looked to my group before following her to go get Hershal, Maggie and Beth so I could do the usual introductions.

I found Maggie and Beth working in the kitchen with some new women who I was introduced to there as Lori, Andrea and Carol. I nodded, not saying a word, but motioned for Maggie to take everyone outside if she could. She nodded to show she understood and I then went around the house to find Hershal. I climbed up the stairs and soon found him in the spare bedroom tending to a man. I had knocked just in case, but when there was no answer; I opened the door to see Hershal tending to a wound on the man's side, getting a clear view of a nearly naked backside. My eyes went wide and I turned away, holding on to the handle to keep me from slamming the door.

"Oh good, you're back. Xayden, you've had some nursing experience, I need you to come help me a bit." I heard Hershal say and I almost cursed myself for coming in at this time. I managed to turn around and face the old man though, as well as the backside of this rugged looking gentleman. Clearing my throat, I walked over to the two just as the stranger who looked to be in pretty bad shape turned his head a bit to see who this new comer was.

"I told ya before, you persistent old man, I'm fine. I don't need no looking after; I can take care of it myself." I heard the male say, raising an eyebrow when I heard a country accent as thick as my own. Chuckling to myself, I motioned for Hershal to move as I could tell this man was on pain medicine. Rolling up the sleeves to my black hoodie, I cracked my fingers and then put my hand over the bandage on his side before pushing down to where I didn't even have a fraction of my 145lbs on the man below me. He bellowed out in pain and cursed at me before I let up and smirked down at him.

"With how you look, ya should have been able to take that small amount of weight no matter what injury, as long as it was shallow. This however, doesn't seem to be that." I sat down and removed the bandage and inspected the area that was bruising inside and swelling. "Ah, got some internal bleeding still. Not a whole lot to cause a scare, but enough to cause irritation and such. Hershal, I need to open your stitches. It seems he ripped it out himself, I take it?" I asked, though it was more rhetorical despite the fact that I was hearing this stranger speak.

"Yeah, took the arrow out myself to get back up a hill." He muttered before looking over to me. My amethyst eyes met his blue ones for a minute before I looked away, feeling my cheeks burn up for no reason. I huffed at the thought before looking to Hershal, who had a pair of small surgical scissors in his hand for me. I took them and opened up the stitching Hershal created when he went inside the wound to make sure everything was ok. Looking in, I found the source of the bleeding and sighed.

"Can we get this man some whiskey or some strong ass liquor? Moonshine is something I vote for, but highly doubt we have any of that." I muttered and Hershal just gave me a look.

"There's no liquor in the house." He said to me and I had to laugh dryly as if him saying that were some kind of joke despite me knowing it wasn't.

"Well, then pain killers or not, you're gonna be in a lot of pain." I said to the stranger before going in with a needle and some dissolve thread that Hershal gave me and sewing up the bits of torn flesh together. Every-now-and-then, I'd have to stop and remind the gentleman to stay still or I was gonna knock him out, or give him something to flinch and groan to. He in turn would laugh dryly and come up with some snarky comeback that would actually have me amused and slightly amazed.

When his wound was drained and closed again, I put the bandage back on and looked to him as I stood. His damage wasn't that bad, but he was definitely looking a little worse for wear now as he was covered in a light sheen of sweat and the bandage on his head was slightly askew and his hair was either up and over the bandage or plastered to his neck and forehead. Humming to myself, I turned to get out of the room as I was basically finished.

"So you put me through Hell, patch me up and I don't get a name?" I heard from behind me, making me turn around with a raised eyebrow.

"Would think the fact that I put ya through Hell would be a perfect reason as to why ya wouldn' want to know my name; but if yer gonna be all angst-y about it, my name is Xayden, or Xay." I muttered as I looked to him with a hint of amusement. He let out an airy chuckle as if he was going to comment on what kind of name 'Xayden' was, just like all the other rednecks I met in my life, but instead he just managed to roll onto his back and look to me in a more comfortable manner for him.

"Daryl." He said with a nod of his head. I returned the nod and motioned for Hershal to follow me as we walked out of the room, heading downstairs to see the others out on the porch.

When we got out there, some guy was going off on something that didn't seem too important as the main guy who looked to me with some curiosity and concern was paying him no mind. I could tell he was probably the potential leader of his own as everyone seemed to be looking to him while looking over to my group every-now-and-then.

"Well, I am already going to introduce Xayden, as I know her, but haven't seen her since she was a little girl. The good news is that with her around, you all can get even better care with injuries as she was a nurse for a few years before she quit. I don't know the people in her group, but as I know how Xayden was as a girl and she hasn't seemed to change, I know they are safe and thus welcome on my farm." Hershal said to the others, and most of them seemed relieved at his words; except for the one babbling on about shit that didn't matter and I soon was growing irritable of this shaved-head whiny pussy-bitch of nature and I drew my harpoon and pointed the barrel straight at his head with a growl.

"If ya don' stop yer shit, I'm gunna kill ya myself. I don' do all this 'don' kill the livin' bullshit. So either shut yer face and be quiet willingly so people can speak, or I'm gunna make sure ya ain't making any noise at all, ya worthless piece of shit." I snarled out, getting a startled look from Hershal and Maggie, as well as the new group while the guy I had just threatened gulped down his smart-assed answer and ducked his head before storming off. "I hate whiny pussy-bitch adult boys who have the gull to call themselves men." I whispered more to myself, but knew that people could hear it since some of the women put their hands over their mouths and ducked their heads to hide smiles and stifle giggles.

"Well, I guess Xayden isn't going to introduce us now that she was put in a bad mood. I'll start then. I'm Iris, the old lady is Janice. Then you have Derrick and his little girl Coraline; or Coral as she likes to me called; and last but not least, there is Mahlikx, or Max. That's us." Iris said with a small laugh at the end; which I learned in the last few months is what she did when she was slightly nervous but wanting to be accepted. I rolled my eyes and looked away into the grassy hills that led to the forest as I could see the beauty from where I was on the porch next to Hershal. I was soon knocked out of my little trance of admiration when someone cleared their throat and when my attention was caught; the leader-like male began to speak.

"I'm Rick. This is my wife Lori and my son Carl. With us we also have Dale, Glenn, Andrea, T-Dog, Carol, Daryl and Shane; who was the man your friend up there told off a few minutes ago. I apologize for his behavior. He's been a bit… off lately." The newly proclaimed Rick said, looking truly sincere in his apology and I just sighed and looked away again as I put my hands in my black hoodie pocket.

"No need to apologize on his account. One man's actions usually reflect on the whole group, but he seems out of place, like he's got better things to do. I don't see what the fuck there could be to do out there other than be a right shit-faced idiot like he's being; but hey, what do I know. I'm just a redneck hick girl with a minor in nursing." I muttered, actually talking a bit more formal than usual as I was still a bit pissed off at the man they were calling Shane. In truth, I already gave him the name of 'pussy bitched asshole' but that was just me.

"I don't think you have the right to say things like that. You have no idea what we all have been through and what he's done for us!" The blonde, Andrea was it, said to me and I just snarled and jumped off the porch to get close to her, which made her back up. _Yeah, that's a smart thing to do, dumb bitch._ I thought before clearing my throat to speak.

"I'm sorry. Did you have to kill your lover, your mother, your sister, your brother and your grandmother? No? Then I don't want to hear about what a pussy-assed bitch like him has gone through. If you're stupid enough to listen to anything that asshole has to say, you ain't nothing but a right whore. So the next time you have something to say to me about a man who can't do no good and just whines his sorrows and how something should be done his way or he's gonna throw a fit, I think it would be best to keep yer fucking mouth shut, or you'll find it occupied with an arrow. I ain't here to make friends. You want to do that, fine, I'll cooperate; but if you're going to stand up to some asshole you just want to fuck, I suggest you find someone else to stand up to because I don't give a shit about just feeding an arrow to both of you." I snarled before walking up the stairs again, not paying attention to her shocked face. "I've got a wounded man to check up on. Think I'd rather be with him, least he seems more interesting than some of this lot." I said, looking over to where Shane was kicking shit and then looking to a shocked, hurt and angry Andrea before nodding my heads to the others in apology before heading off into the house and up the stairs to see how Daryl was doing despite me seeing him not even twenty minutes ago. I knocked softly, throwing an apple in the air before I got a grunt like noise as my queue to come in. Coming in and grabbing my small pocket knife, I started cutting the apple and getting the core off.

"Oh, it's you. What you come back up here for?" Daryl asked as I took a seat at the chair next to the bed.

"If I had to deal with that blonde or her whiny, pussy-bitch fuck buddy for much longer, I would have been put in a shed or something for killing living people without hesitation." I muttered before splitting the apple pieces and handing two to Daryl and two I kept for myself. He reluctantly took them, not seeming to like the whole fact that a woman was preparing something for him to eat. Or maybe it was the fact that me doing this in front of him and slightly for him made him feel a bit helpless. Something inside me had a feeling it was both.

"So you came up here to a drugged, wounded man?" Daryl laughed dryly before taking a bite out of one of the apple pieces, moving slowly to sit up a bit better. "Don't think that's much of an improvement." He actually looked to me with his last words and our eyes locked for a minute or so before I looked away and cleared my throat, keeping the blood from rushing to my face.

"You'd be surprised what a better improvement from those two is…. Think I would rather try to talk to a walker than to talk to them, they're more of a nightmare." I giggled, looking up when I got another airy chuckle from Daryl, which this time made a bit of blood rush to my pale cheeks, but thankfully the dark room hid it from him.

"Well, lucky for you, I ain't no walker." Daryl muttered after a minute of silence. I looked up to him again and wondered what had happened to his head. He explained the wound on his side, but why was his head bandaged up? I finally decided I wasn't going to get to the conclusion just making up assumptions, and changed the subject for a minute.

"What happened to your head? We talked about the wound on your side, but not the bandages on your head." I could see Daryl tense up a bit before he shrugged and absent-mindedly touched the bandages on his head for a quick second before he huffed and looked around before looking at me.

"I was shot… I had come back from looking for a little girl looking worse for wear and Andrea shot me from a distance thinking I was a walker despite what Rick told her not to do. I don't really feel all to bitter about it anymore, though. I get what she was trying to do." Daryl looked to me, not seeing anything on my face or in my eyes as I was hiding a tiny bit of anger towards the blonde; well more so than I already had; as well as confusion and slight despair for not knowing why I was more angry with the female knowing this, knowing what she did to the man laying here.

"Well, guess we can be lucky it was just a grazer then." I managed to say after a while of trying to swallow down the strange anger feeling I had that confused me beyond belief. It was rather scary feeling angry for something happening to a man I had only just met; I was never one to feel or do such a thing as I always kept myself shut in and barely relied on my sister for support despite her always wanting to be there for me as she had left me with our alcoholic, abusive and pathetic excuse for a human being of a mother.

"Yeah, we can. So what you come up here for, anyway? Anything you wanted to talk about or any news I should be hearing about what you found when you were poking around and putting me through Hell? You weren't all to talkative about the wound when you were done." Daryl muttered before looking over to me, trying to move comfortably and be able to look at me; which made me nervous as hell.

"The wound is fine. I managed to drain the blood that was collecting as you had internal bleeding, but it was collecting in some torn tissue. You're fine, now, though. That's the only reason I didn't really say anything. Nothing really needed to be said. If it were something bad, I think that's the time to say something; but if everything is fine, why bother?" I muttered as I looked to him and he was just smiling a bit of a lopsided smile that had my lips twitching up in a slight amused smile at seeing this.

"Well that's good. Thought I was gonna have to talk to Hershal about putting me on dangerous horses and not warning me before I went out that it was as jumpy as a rabbit when startled. A snake… That is literally what scared her, a snake that was probably five feet away, if not more. That fucking horse decided it was too close still and reared back before bucking up and sent me flying down a slope. My crossbow set off and the arrow went right into my side. Almost had a bad ending with two walkers, too, wasn' pretty. Guess I could say that wasn't my best day." Daryl muttered and I couldn't help but put my fingertips to my lips to fight a smile. Daryl saw and did a sort of mad pout. "What do you find funny about that?" He said as he tried to sit up again only to groan in pain.

"Hey, don' hurt yourself and tear my stitching or I'll put ya through more Hell than I did before. I was just thinking on how much bad zen someone could have in one day, it was a rather entertaining thing to think upon." I said as I held my ground, getting ready to get up and keep him slightly down on that bed if he tried to sit up anymore. Looking at me with wide eyes for a minute, Daryl's awkward smile returned, and then he let out a small series of what sounded like airy laughs before shaking his head softly as if not knowing what to say.

Truth be told, I didn't either, and it was of course at this time that everything that seemed to be going well just had to go to shit when I heard Hershal quietly; or so he thought; fighting with what sounded to be Rick. What a shitty day it was turning out to be; the only good thing being meeting someone I could relate to. What drama could possibly be going on now? I sighed and walked to the door, cracking it and blocking the opening so Daryl couldn't hear. What I heard would probably be something I would never expect and yet never forget.


	3. Chapter 3

**There's No Emotion in Their Eyes.**

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I do not own The Walking Dead or the familiar characters in the show. Those rights belong to AMC as well as the authors of the graphic novel series. I do not make any profit writing this story; it is all for entertainment and hobby-related fun (and a bit of fangirl-ism).**_

_**The only thing I own is Xayden, my made-up character and her group.**_

_**This chapter is a Christmas chapter that I wanted to do. There is a lot of OC scenarios, sadly, but I have tried to keep it to where the characters are still themselves.**_

_**Also keep in mind that this isn't really going on with the story plot; I just wanted to do a nice, fluffy, little Christmas chapter. The real story will pick up in 'chapter 4'.**_

_**Please enjoy and Happy Holidays, everyone!**_

_**Chapter 3**_

_**We Wish You a Gory Christmas**_

_Jingle Bells, Zombies Smell, Shoot them in the head_

_Don't make noise or more will come and we'll all end up dead_

I smiled as I watched Coraline and Carl decorating the small Evergreen tree that I had managed to cut down. It was a good thing Hershal was always looking at calendars and always finding new ones to keep the date in check or none of us would have known it was almost Christmas. We all had been taking turns going to town and scrounging up what we could find for "gifts" for each other; or at least gifts for people we wanted to get gifts for. I sighed and stood up from the small chair I was sitting in while watching these kids decorate the tree in old ornaments, popcorn garland and other knick-knacks that made the tree look rather old school, and moved towards the dining room where all the females were working to make tomorrow's dinner. It was rather shocking that today was Christmas Eve and there was a pile of presents slightly underneath and mostly around the tree, an area cleared away for the kids to work as they wanted to decorate something. I had only just found that tree earlier today and had Daryl help me cut it down and lug it back here. He mostly drove as he was still healing, but I enjoyed being in his company more than I did anyone else other than Rick; but he was searching around town for something for his wife.

When I looked into the kitchen, the women were still working on things; Lori, Andrea, Iris, Carol, Maggie, Patricia, Beth and Janice; and I was told to stay out of the kitchen as they needed me to pluck, skin and gut things to be prepared to cook. Tonight we were having steak, venison, duck, chicken with potatoes, canned green beans that we all scrounged up, a couple of boxes of Stove Top stuffing as I had managed to find vegetable oil to replace the butter or anything needed, and for dessert, I had found some canned peaches and Patricia made some home-made whipped cream earlier today. I sighed, feeling like there was nothing to do as everything I had to do was already done. Deciding that I was rather useless in the house, I went outside and saw that not many people were out here due to the nightly cold that was starting to come as it was getting into late evening. The one person I saw, and was happy to see, was Daryl. He was working on making more arrows away from the small group of people that were out and I sighed as I never understood why he was so anti-social before I walked over to him, sitting down next to him and pursed my lips together before he finally looked to me and I smiled softly.

"Christmas eve and you're making arrows, what a wonderful thing to do." I said sarcastically and Daryl just let out an airy laugh before he put his arrows down and looked ahead for a minute before looking at me.

"Nothing else better to do, really. Not like any of these people are kin to me, so why would I waste my time with them." Daryl muttered and his words made me frown, which in turn had him give me a curious look.

"Well, we may not be kin to you, but some of us may still want to spend this holiday with you." I informed him, still looking a bit hurt before I stood up and brushed myself off and then turned to head back inside only to be stopped by a hand around my small wrist. I looked down to see Daryl not looking at me as his head was down, but it was his hand around my wrist. Now I was confused and I made a soft mewling noise in my throat as I couldn't move due to him holding me in place.

"All you had to do was say so, ya know." Daryl muttered, still not looking up as he seemed kind of sheepish or shy, I couldn't decide which.

"Huh?" Was all I managed to get out before I was pulled down to sit next to Daryl again. The man still wasn't looking at me and I sighed for a minute before I looked up to the evening sky. The sun was setting and it was getting rather dark despite it being only about six in the evening, but stars were beginning to show and I couldn't help but watch as they were slowly revealed from being hidden by the sun all day. I wasn't brought out of my admiration until I felt something moving behind me and then something grasp on to my right hip with the softest of touches, almost timid like a deer's movements. I had a feeling what it was, but when I looked up to Daryl as I seemed to be closer to him now, he was looking up at the sky as well, not seeming to notice me. Deciding to let him have this moment, though, I looked back up at the sky and just enjoyed things turning into night with him. It was rather peaceful not having people screaming for things to be done, or people yelling about walkers around the perimeter or in the woods, or even about the walkers they had seen in town and such.

If I thought about it, this moment was probably one of the most accidental romantic moments of my life. My lover didn't even do things like this with me. He was the complete opposite of me; city boy, fine clothes, proper manners (unless he was drunk, then he'd turn violent), and always had to watch his grammar. I don't know what made me fall for him when I did. I think it was the fact that I had never been outside my house until I decided I wanted to work to go to college and I went to college and worked on my medical degree and then here he was with his smooth words and proper style to swoon a girl like my right off her feet. Thinking on it now, I think I was more in love with what he stood for rather than him.

Looking up at Daryl, I couldn't help but lean into his side a bit, feeling him tense for just a second before he relaxed and let out a soft, comfortable sigh through his nose. I couldn't help but do the same and soon I felt us moving and Daryl was lying back against the log we had made into a make-shift bench earlier today so that his head was on it and my head was against his shoulder as if to keep it off the hard surface of the log. When we were done moving and had settled, I couldn't help but have my thoughts shift on what my life would be like now if I had known Daryl before I met the Joshua in college. I wondered if he and I could possibly pull off a romantic relationship despite him being more socially awkward than myself. The more I thought about it, I couldn't help the blood and heat that rushed to my face and I quickly looked up to the sky before Daryl could feel the heat on his skin and think I was getting a fever or what other nonsense he could come up with. When I was looking up at the sky, I was seeing just big clusters of stars and swirls. I began making my own constellations again and I couldn't help but start to realize something looking straight up. Intertwined inside a cluster of stars that looked like the letter 'D' appeared to be the letter 'X'. I rubbed at my eyes a few times to see if I was seeing things, but it was plain as day and my mind was now cleared of any thoughts of me and the man beneath me, so nothing could be messing with my eyes. I didn't understand what it was really supposed to mean though.

After a few hours of looking at the stars with Daryl, I looked back to him and realized he had fallen asleep and his hand was back on my hip while he still kept my head on his shoulder. With a soft sigh, and being bundled up due to the chilling cold that was coming; as well as being so close to Daryl who felt like a personal heater; I was rather comfortable and didn't want to move. Pulling my hood up to cover half of my face from the cold, I shuffled a bit so I was laying my head on Daryl's chest and soon fell asleep listening to his heartbeat.

**Next Morning**

When I woke up, I saw to kids leaning over me in fits of giggles. At first I wasn't sure as to why they were giggling at me until I started waking up more and felt something very human underneath me. Trying not to wince at the thought that I might be sleeping on the man that I possibly might be growing a thing for, I slowly looked up to see a still sleeping Daryl. I actually felt more relieved knowing he was still asleep and I went to move, only to be pulled back down by the hand that was still on my hip. I made a small 'omph' noise when I went back down onto Daryl's chest, slowly looking up again to see a now very awake Daryl who had an eyebrow raised.

"Yer finally up?" He asked, and I at first looked confused before I furrowed my brows as if to feign anger; as he knew as much as I did that I wasn't really mad at him.

"So you were awake? Why on earth would ya have yer eyes closed if ya were awake!?" I said in a more embarrassed tone rather than anger. He just chuckled and shrugged before stretching a bit and sighing.

"Was the kids' idea." Was all he stated before I moved off of him and sat up. Looking around, I didn't see anyone outside other than the kids, who were now running to tents to wake people up. I looked confused while I cleared my throat to ask Daryl something.

"What time do you reckon it is?" I muttered, looking to him while trying to hide the redness that I felt had appeared on my cheeks.

"About five to six in the morning. I was already awake and then kids came running out of their tents. Will admit, it is kind of nice to see them excited about something." Daryl said with a dry laugh at the end of his sentence and I raised an eyebrow this time.

"Oh no, is the hard-ass Daryl Dixon growing a soft spot for kids!?" I joked, giggling and just patting his leg before getting up and doing a full body stretch with my hands locked and my arms over my head before brushing myself off and heading over to the little campsite just as people were getting out; groggy but not being able to fight smiles due to the kids. I will admit that it even got me smiling; it was nice to see these kids so excited on getting presents and having a big dinner, and well, just getting into the spirit of this day.

I walked over to Daryl's tent where I had stored my bag and where I also got changed on most days when the house was busy. I grabbed a pair of faded, slightly skinny jeans, a dark grey tank top and a blue, grey and black plaid shirt that had the sleeves ripped off. Changing quickly and putting my loosely tied combat boots back on, I walked back out and sighed before nodding to everyone who was out and heading inside after the kids as they were running to the tree to start sorting through presents. I couldn't help my laugh as it escaped and I put my hands in the back pockets of my jeans as I passed Daryl and smiled softly before climbing the steps before opening the door and heading inside. Hershal, Maggie and everyone were already awake and laughing at the eager kids while sitting back in the living room and letting the kids have their fun going through presents.

I sat down on a chair that someone had moved into the living room and just watched the kids like everyone else while others finally came in the house, some laughing, some just smiling and others just looking rather reluctant to even be wanting to do this. I rolled my eyes at seeing Shane and Andrea just being the party crashers and not getting into any spirit at all and I couldn't help getting up and motioning them both to go out of the living room, following them into the room where Carl was operated on; or so I heard after a while of being here.

"If ya can't get into ANY spirit around these kids and suck up yer glum, shitty attitudes, then ya can stay the fuck outside. We don't need this shit today. So either grow up, fake a smile and deal with it, or go outside and don't be a part of it at all. We ain't doing this for ourselves, we're doing it for the kids." I muttered to them before I walked off, leaving them there to make their own decisions and leaving before they could retaliate because if they tried, I'd hit them both.

I came back inside the living room, smiling and giggling as Carl was getting lost in presents as Coral was trying to tell him she had already sorted out some he was trying to sort out. I took a seat next to Daryl, as Glenn had taken my seat to be close to Maggie; which was fine with me. Daryl moved his chair close to mine to where they were touching perfectly and put an arm around me as he watched the kids go through presents and start pushing stacks to people that the stacks belonged to. When they gave me my stack, I saw a bunch more presents than I was expecting. Raising an eyebrow, I reached for one and saw that this one was from Iris. Opening it up, I saw a can of oil that she must have found for my bike. I looked up to her and nodded my thanks and she just gleamed. The second one was from Janice and she just got me some more jeans; knowing my jeans were becoming a little worse for wear with the holes in the thighs and knees. I opened two more; one from Derrick and Coraline and one from Rick, Carl and Lori; one was a book that I had been talking about when I first got to talking to my group; Lover Avenged which was part of a series. Chuckling slightly, I knew what was never leaving my bag unless I was reading it. The other one was a small repair kit; again for my bike. I smiled up at Rick and his family and Carl beamed back at me while Rick smiled shortly and nodded his head. I still had a bit of presents to go through. I got something from Hershal and his family, something from Glenn and Maggie, something from Dale and T-Dog, and something from Carol.

Even when I was done unwrapping those presents, I still had four more. I looked to them confused before picking up two at a time. All of them were from Daryl. My eyes widened and I looked up to him and he only shrugged before going back to helping Coral unwrap a rather large present of hers. Thinking to myself, I sighed before unwrapping a rather long looking package from him. I gasped when I saw a case of hand-carved arrows for my bow. Pulling one out, I even saw it had its own little designs carved into the sides of the thin, sharp piece of wood. Even the wind-based tail was basically customized. It was still the four pieces of plastic, but these were purple and blue and were cut at an elegant angle. I was in love with these things and I couldn't believe Daryl had made them for me. Looking to him with an almost teary smile, I hugged him, ignoring all the 'aww's that filled room. He hugged me back after a minute before chuckling.

"What ya hugging me for? You still go three presents to go." He muttered in my ear before pulling away and going back to helping Coral as someone had fun wrapping her present. I could only smile as I went to unwrap the next three presents. One was a pile of tank tops and plaid shirts that already had the sleeves ripped off; I had to giggle at that. Another was a beautiful white gold chained necklace that had a charm of a crossbow and a squirrel dangling from it as well as a few dark brown feathers hanging from one side. The last one had me blushing as someone must have told him my birthstone as sitting in my lap in a long box was a bracelet, my birthstone; Tourmaline Opal; mixed with my favorite gem; sapphire. They made an alternating chain, and I couldn't believe he found this. Looking up to him again, he was just smiling at me, looking a bit sheepish underneath that rugged exterior of his. I literally almost jumped him when I went to hug him, almost knocking him and the chair over as I was fully out of my chair now and basically in his lap. Everyone laughed; as they had been watching me unwrap these presents; but I didn't care as I couldn't see them due to my face being in Daryl's shoulder.

"Thank you." I whispered against the revealed skin of his shoulder, and I felt him move so his face was touching the side of my head, his nose in my hair with his mouth a few inches from my ear.

"Yer welcome. I'm glad you like it. Took forever finding those two trinkets." He whispered back, his hand absently rubbing my back, which had me relaxing against him. After a minute, we heard someone clear their throat and I pulled away quickly, fighting a blush as I moved back into my own chair and just smiled to everyone while I put on the chain necklace. It was rather long, but thankfully the feathers didn't make it seem too bulky as I thought they would. I hummed softly as I admired it while it was on me before tucking it into my tank top right before I was attacked by two hyper kids who seemed to have opened my gifts to them.

"Thank you Xayden! I love it!" I heard at the same time in two different voices. I couldn't help but chuckle. I had gotten Carl a sling shot and customized the pouch-bed to where it was big enough to hold rocks, but small enough to hold bullets as when he got good at pulling the thing back, he could be dangerous with both. For Coraline; I knew she was a girl with boy-ish tendencies at heart; so I got her pale blue metal bat that had purple butterflies decorated around it. The butterflies were my own design, but it worked out that they showed up really well, and when I covered the bat in a finalizing, waterproof spray, they really popped out.

"Well, they may be weapons, but at least they are weapons meant for kids and it means they won't have to HAVE a gun or a machete unless seriously necessary." I looked over and saw that it was Lori that was speaking and I just chuckled with a shrug.

The rest of the day was spent with laughter, drinking beers that Daryl and I had gotten, playing odd games, picking at Glenn and Maggie when we walked in on them making out in a pantry, and just having a good time. Dinner had been roasting on a fire we had put in the kitchen, letting smoke out every-now-and-then as we didn't want to attract walkers or suffocate people. When it was done, we all quickly sat down to eat; Daryl insisting on sitting next to me, which made me smile; and we all ate while talking, sometimes having small food fights with people across the table, laughing when a handful of mashed potatoes; thrown by Carl; hit Shane and Andrea in the face. It was a nice relief and get-away from the dangers that were possibly outside, but despite knowing this in the back of our minds, this was something we all needed. Looking over to Daryl, who had a bit of rebound mashed potatoes on his cheek, I giggled and reached up to wipe off the food with my fingers before licking them clean; the bracelet on my wrist, moving freely up and down my skinny arm. I beamed up at him and when I opened my eyes I started laughing; so hard I almost fell out of my chair; as when I saw Daryl again, he had a face full of mashed potatoes that were thrown by Shane (who had missed Carl) and was about to get hurt or have something harder—or hotter—thrown at him. This day just kept getting better and better despite it being dark outside already, and I couldn't help but enjoy seeing Daryl pick up a bowl of green bean casserole and walk over to Shane secretly while he was talking to Andrea and then just flip the mess on over his head and put the bowl on his head as to let the stuff sit there. By this time I was already off my chair laughing and actually had to get out of the room before I died from laughter.

When dinner was over and done with, everyone cleaned up and soon all of us were either in the house, in tents, messing with our gifts, or crashing where-ever. Daryl and I were back at the log, lying down with his arm over me as we both looked to the stars again.

"So did ya really enjoy yer presents?" Daryl asked me while looking at the new boots I had gotten him; which he was wearing.

"Yeah, I do enjoy them. Quite a lot. Thank you for finding them for me, they're amazing." I whispered as I had my eyes closed and was already relaxed and ready to fall asleep. He was also wearing the cologne I had found for him, and the smell was really relaxing me and just had me snuggling into him more to escape from the cold air as well as get closer to him. I heard his airy chuckle before I felt his arm tighten around me and he held me close as if trying to protect me from the cold air. I had to admit that today was a wonderful day, but I tried to keep in mind that something could always happen horribly tomorrow to ruin this mood—as much as I hated thinking that way—so it kept me from staying too deep into my dreamland.


End file.
